Sam Allardyce slams Unai Emery for use of tactics against Manchester City

Sam Allardyce has questioned Arsenal manager Unai Emery's gameplan in Sunday's 2-0 loss to Premier League champions Manchester City.

The Gunners were deservedly beaten in the Spaniard's first competitive game in charge of the club, ending with 42% possession on home soil.

Emery's side surrendered the ball all too easily when attempting to play out from the back, leading to ironic cheers when goalkeeper Petr Cech - who almost scored a comical own goal - finally punted the ball high up the field.

Allardyce claims that the blame lies solely with the manager, who he believes sent his team out with the wrong message.

"It is the manager's fault," he told talkSPORT when asked about Cech's performance. "Don't ask somebody to do against Man City what you shouldn't do. You shouldn't play out like that against Manchester City.

"What do Manchester City do? They press, press, press so why do you try and play out when they press, press, press? Even the Arsenal crowd cheered when [Cech] dropped one in the opposition's half.

"We are getting obsessed with this stupid 'let's play out from the back, split the centre halves either side of the 18-yard box and go and play from there'...it's utter rubbish to play like that all of the time. When you're the best at it then you can do it."

Allardyce was sacked by Everton at the end of last season after just six months in charge.